Ranji Trophy: Confident Assam host Saurashtra in opener

On the back of their semifinal finish in the recently-concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy, a confident Assam will start their Ranji Trophy sojourn when they host Saurashtra in an Elite Group B fixture at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati from Tuesday.
Though they will be up against Vijay Hazare champions Saurashtra, the Kunal Saikia-led side will be eager to carry on from where they left the domestic one-day meet.
In Vijay Hazare, Assam successfully chased big targets against quality bowling attacks like Vidarbha and Karnataka besides defending not so big scores against domestic heavyweights like Delhi. With the bowling and batting units complementing each other in different match situations, Trevor Gonsalves’ boys will be eager to transfer their good show in the limited-over format to red-ball cricket seamlessly.
Being a side comprising a lot of young players alongside some of the veterans like batters Sibsankar Roy and Gokul Sharma, Assam have been a quality fielding side with youthful legs where all-rounder Akash Sengupta deserves a mention for his excellent fielding capability among others.
In batting they will be led by an in-form Riyan Parag, who has scored three centuries in this edition of Vijay Hazare — the 116-ball 174 against Jammu & Kashmir in the quarterfinals being the highest, where Assam chased down a target of 351 with 23 balls to spare.
Riyan will be ably supported in the batting department by opener Saikia, Rishav Das, Sibsankar, Swarupam Purkayastha and Gokul, while young medium pacers Sunil Lachit, Mrinmoy Dutta and Mukhtar Hussain will give Assam the needed firepower in bowling department alongwith left-arm orthodox spinner Sidharth Sarmah.
In the absence of skipper Jaydev Unadkat, who has got a callup to India Test squad in place of injured Mohammed Shami, Saurashtra will be a bit weaker in the bowling department but they have enough bench strength to cover up for that loss. Veteran batter-wicketkeeper Sheldon Jackson and all-rounder Chirag Jani will be the players Saurashtra will expect to deliver the goods against Assam.
Assam squad: Kunal Saikia (captain, wk), Subham Mondal, Rishav Das, Riyan Parag, Sibsankar Roy, Swarupam Purkayastha, Gokul Sharma, Avinav Choudhury, Sidharth Sarmah, Abhishek Thakuri (wk), Akash Sengupta, Sunil Lachit, Mrinmoy Dutta, Mukhtar Hussain and Rahul Hazarika.
Elite Group B: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Saurashtra, Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Delhi
Group B first-round fixtures: Andhra vs Mumbai in Vizianagaram; Assam vs Saurashtra in Guwahati; Delhi vs Maharashtra in Pune; Hyderabad vs Tamil Nadu in Hyderabad